Twelve Mile House
Douglas County, Douglas County, Nevada
Marker Inscription
Twelve Mile House. Proposed Text, Marker Text Plate in Prodution:Twelve Mile House was an important stop on the road to the Esmeralda mining camp of Aurora. Mile houses like this one were critical places for rest and supplies along early western road systems before railroads made most mile houses and stations obsolete. Twelve Mile House was part of a network of similar stations that ran from Genoa to Aurora, including another station on the eastern side of the Pine Nut Mountains called Double Springs.Thomas Wheeler built this important hostelry in 1859 where the East Fork of the Carson River emerges from Long Valley to the south. The Twelve Mile House was so named because it was located twelve miles from Genoa and twelve miles from the Cradlebaugh Bridge across the Carson River. It lay at an important crossroads in the southeast part of Carson Valley, with roads from Twelve Mile House leading southeast to Goldfield, south to Woodfords, west to Fairview, northwest to Minden, Gardnerville, and Genoa, and north to Cradlebaugh Bridge and Carson City.
Erected by Carson Valley Historical Society
The Story
Thomas Wheeler built the Twelve Mile House in 1859 where the East Fork of the Carson River emerges from Long Valley, naming it for its equal distance from Genoa and from the Cradlebaugh Bridge. A vital stop on the road to the Aurora mining camp, it sat at a busy crossroads with routes radiating toward Goldfield, Woodfords, Genoa, and Carson City. Mile houses like this supplied rest and provisions for travelers until the railroads made most of them obsolete.
Why it matters
The Twelve Mile House represents the network of waystations that made long-distance overland travel survivable in the West—an infrastructure of hospitality erased almost overnight by the coming of the railroad.
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Related people
- · Thomas Wheeler
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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